Nearly seven years ago, changes to Coastal Federal Credit Union’s investment program were put in place to help build a stronger presence with members, many of whom had long-time ties to IBM, the cooperative’s original sponsor.

I sat next to a man on the plane out to the Credit Union Water Cooler Symposium in Indiana who turned 30 people supporting his cause into 5,000. His story had all the topics that would make good news footage–and social networking.